House Republicans sought to end an extraordinary day of drama and a 16-hour sit-in by Democrats in the early hours of Thursday morning by adjourning for a recess that will last through July 5.
The move is an effort to shut down a protest that began Wednesday morning when Democrats took over the House floor and tried to force votes on gun control. After scrambling to react, the GOP appeared to catch Democrats off guard in the middle of the night, when they moved swiftly to end the legislative session and undermine the protest.
Democrats, however, have promised to continue — without cameras, lights or a legislative session.
“Just because they have left, it doesn’t mean we have to take no as an answer,” House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi said.
Republicans said they wouldn’t give Democrats the gun control votes they wanted.
“Democrats can continue to talk, but the reality is that they have no end-game strategy,” House Speaker Paul Ryan’s spokeswoman AshLee Strong said in a statement. “The Senate has already defeated the measure they’re calling for. The House is focused on eliminating terrorists, not constitutional rights of law-abiding citizens. And no stunts on the floor will change that.”
The tension exploded onto the floor just after 10 p.m. ET when Republican Speaker Paul Ryan gaveled the chamber into order to hold a procedural vote on an unrelated matter. A dramatic scene unfolded as throngs of Democrats — some holding signs with the names of victims of gun violence — remained in the House well chanting “no bill, no break” and “shame shame shame.” They also sang the protest anthem “We Shall Overcome.”
Such displays would normally be prohibited but Ryan, sensitive to the attention being paid to the sit-in, declined to enforce the traditional order in the House.
The House returned to session around 1 a.m. Thursday and again after 2:30 a.m. to hold another series of votes, prompting further objections from sit-in participants.
The political world started Wednesday focused on insults flying between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. But the sit-in refocused attention on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers have been unable to act on gun control legislation in the aftermath of the Orlando shooting. And Lewis, 76, perhaps the most prominent of the 1960s-era civil rights leaders still alive, said it reminded him of his early days protesting to end segregation.
“We’re going to continue to sit in and sit down,” he said Wednesday night. “By sitting in and sitting down, we’re standing up.”
Ahead of the vote, dozens of Democratic House members gathered around Minority Whip Steny Hoyer as he equated their sit-in with the civil rights protests led by figures like Lewis and Rep. Jim Clyburn five decades ago.
“We stand here saying Paul Ryan, help give us the right to vote on these two bills, make America safer!” Hoyer said.
As the two sides raced to the night-time showdown in the House, staff brought in food, pillows and even sleeping bags. Lawmakers even announced they had brought in battery packs to keep the livestream on Periscope going through the night.
“I think we are going to work through the evening!” Clyburn promised to cheers.
The U.S. House controls the cameras on its floor, so live video footage was not available during the sit-in, which occurred while the House was in recess, though many lawmakers tweeted images or streamed live video via smartphones.
In an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, Ryan dismissed the sit-in effort as a “publicity stunt.” Behind closed doors, he promised Republicans they would vote on an unrelated veto override measure and Zika funding legislation.
The sit-in follows the shooting at an Orlando gay nightclub earlier this month that killed 49 people — the deadliest incident of gun violence in American history. The shooting is renewing the debate over gun control legislation, which seems poised to go nowhere in Congress. The Senate blocked several gun measures Monday even as a CNN/ORC poll this week found that public support for changes such as tighter background checks hovers around 90%.
Several Republican congressmen criticized the sit-in as a political stunt.
“Calling this a sit-in is a disgrace to Woolworth’s,” Rep. Mark Walker of North Carolina tweeted. “They sat-in for rights. Dems are ‘sitting-in’ to strip them away.”
Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan tweeted, “Democrats are staging a sit-in on the House floor. They refuse to leave until our Constitution replaces due process with secret lists.”
As the sit-in continued, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee used the opportunity to fundraise, with Pelosi telling supporters, “I need 6,000 gifts in the door during tonight’s sit-in. Will you pitch in $1?”
The sit-in evoked memories of a protest by House Republicans in August 2008 to push for a vote on offshore drilling. When Pelosi, then the House speaker, adjourned the House for Congress’ summer recess, a handful of House GOP members remained as the lights and microphones inside the chamber were turned off and House cameras, controlled by the speaker’s office, were switched off.
‘This is leadership’
Democrats rallied behind the sit-in. Some, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, joined the sit-in while others delivered snacks and sodas.
Lewis was also encouraged by President Barack Obama and former President Bill Clinton.
“Thank you John Lewis for leading on gun violence where we need it most,” Obama tweeted.
Clinton tweeted his praise, writing, “This is leadership” and linking to Lewis’ tweet about the sit-in.
Lewis organized sit-ins at segregated lunch counters after being inspired to join Martin Luther King Jr.’s crusade for equality and eventually led the mass march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, on Bloody Sunday in 1965, one of the epochal events in American history. Lewis was beaten so badly by Alabama state troopers that they fractured his skull.
Democratic brass, who have struggled mightily to find support for gun control measures, streamed through the House chamber throughout the day. More than 100 House Democrats took part in the sit-in and a steady stream of Senate Democrats walked across the Capitol to join in the protest.
As DNC chairwoman Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz recounted reading the resignation letter from former Rep. Gabby Giffords, who was wounded in a shooting in 2011, from the same House lectern four years ago, she began tearing up.
“No more Auroras, no more Orlandos!” she shouted, to a standing ovation. Pelosi, who led Hillary Clinton into a meeting with congressional Democrats just hours before the sit-in began, stood and applauded with the other Democratic congressmen and senators gathered in the chamber.
And later, as Wasserman Schultz got up to leave, Lewis hugged her.
As the sit-in gathered momentum, Connecticut Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy, a prominent gun control advocate following the Sandy Hook school massacre in 2012, walked over and joined the sit-in. The lawmaker led a nearly 15-hour filibuster in the Senate last week asking lawmakers to vote on gun reform. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid and Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin also joined the group.
Pelosi joined a couple dozen gun control activists Wednesday afternoon on the steps of the Capitol and vowed Democrats would continue until Ryan scheduled a vote.
One activist, a mother who held a picture of her daughter who was killed in a gun incident, urged people to call the speaker’s office, and said he was listening to the gun lobby instead of citizens.
“Green paper is more valuable than red blood,” the activist shouted, suggesting contributions from gun rights groups were influencing GOP leaders’ decisions.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the lawmakers participating in the sit-in were showing the kind of “frustration and even anger that people around the country have about the inability of the Republican-led Congress to take common sense steps that would protect the American people.”
“I think they’re resorting to what I think even they would acknowledge is an extraordinary step to change the status quo in the House of Representatives that prevents even consideration of common sense gun safety legislation,” Earnest said.
By Wednesday night, Democrats were digging in for the long haul and discussing the potential of remaining on the floor through Friday. California Rep. Judy Chu tweeted a photo of pizza boxes that she says were sent by Californians, and Rep. Donna Edwards, D-Maryland, tweeted a photo of her clutching a pillow, suggesting she was ready to spend the night in the House chamber.
Asked what would happen if Republican leaders turn off the lights in the chamber, Illinois Rep. Jan Schakowsky simply replied, “it will be dark.”